Infinitive form?

[Bob Haas]

How about "segue," or "to segue"?  Works for music, works for radio folk,
should work for writers.  I sometimes use it, but I'm also a musician, an
ex-radio newscaster (way ex!), and all the time writer.  Or it seems that
way as I finish this darn big paper.  You know the one.

> From: Asta <asvedkau at NIU.EDU>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 16:48:34 -0500
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Infinitive form?
>
> How about "to lead" in writing environment? I'd comment on my students'
> papers: "lead your reader into this paragraph."
>
> Asta Svedkauskaite
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Douglas G. Wilson
> Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 2:30 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Infinitive form?
>
>
>> I was just wondering ... if there is an infinitive verb form for
>> "transition"--besides 'to make a transition.'  What seems most obvious is
>> 'to transit'--but I don't think that's it!  Can anyone help?
>
> There is the intransitive verb "transition" = "make a transition". It
> appears in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary and in the American
> Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.). This seems to me to be an uncommon and
> perhaps a recent verb.
>
> Usually, in general, I think one would use "change" or something like that.
>
> I'll defer to the specialists regarding any specialized term in the context
> of composition. None comes to my mind.
>
> "Transit" doesn't quite match (IMHO); this verb corresponds to the noun
> "transit" rather than to the noun "transition", I think -- it usually
> refers to a 'crossing' rather than to a 'change', in my experience.
>
> -- Doug Wilson